Eat croix,
with all the comforts of home. The old
musical admonition to forget all your troubles and forget all your
cares can be presently heard warbling sprightly from the marketing
division of our newly downtown Giants. And certainly the prospect of
attending a game in a jewelbox ballpark nestled brightly amid the
other prominent and civic-minded commercial showcases of the New
Economy might well ventilate a bit of the hothouse pressure of
contemporary California living. Unless of course your seats happen to
be in the uppermost three rows of the View Level at PacBell, where the
wind and cold blast through the open chain-link wall, with a ten to
fifteen degree difference in temperature from the rows below. Could
one speculate that this seating is — were we forced to single out one
of the enterprises with whom we deal daily — Enron’s contribution to
the stadium infrastructure? (That is, as distinct from its gift to the
state generally.) We’re wondering because the park’s scoreboard
doesn’t seem to miss any opportunities to grandly apprise us of the
most recently expressed best wishes to us from Enron’s CEO, the latest
Enron exec to visit our fair city, etc. Indeed, it’s the rare
oversight when corporations overlook the chance to garner recognition
due them in formulating the thoughtful environments which service
their customers and host city.
— John Hutchison
An illustrated guide to the Board of Supervisors.
Protests continue long and loud over plans approved by the
Department of Public Works to subdivide a piece of property at 692
DeHaro, on Potrero Hill,into three lots. In a hearing before the
supes last Monday, some neighbors pleaded for the preservation of
butterflies, open space, and an old house; others cried, “Enough!
Let the deed be done.”
The proposed infill would create six residential
units with one of the most spectacular views in the city; it would
also wipe out a little piece of local history. Perplexed, Jake
McGoldrick consulted maps; perplexed, the supes voted to continue
the matter for a week. An onsite visit might have help clarify the
issue. Or maybe not.
Making the cut. On the
other side of town, bulldozers are breaking a passageway through a
controversial park between Clay and Washington — or actually,
slicing a little off one side to extend Davis for a block.
It’s a puzzling cut — if this was a briss, you’d
wonder about the sanity of the moyel. Or at least, be suspicious.
Davis still doesn’t run straight through — it’s stopped by the
internal driveway of Golden Gateway Apartments. Are three penguins
standing in the path of the next bisection?
Calling Alice B. Toklas.
There it was, inserted in the supes’ agenda for Monday, April 23, by
Supervisor Chris Daly: Motion asking the Legislative Analyst to
report on the number of baked goods that San Francisco’s seniors
would have to sell to earn $36 million for affordable housing, if
these baked goods are sold for $0.25 each. You do the math.
One, two, three — you’re it!
Rebecca Silverberg reports in the newsletter of the Excelsior
District Improvement Association that Assemblyman Kevin Shelley has
set his sites higher, seeing himself as the next California
secretary of state.
The question of the hour becomes, who will aim for
the seat Shelley is vacating? Not the much-rumored Gavin Newsom, who
has ruled himself out. Silverberg spins around three times and picks
— District 4 supervisor Leland Yee. Any other takers?
Wanted: designer for a revolution.
An inchoate movement is burbling for a boycott of the hometown
corporations who insist on sticking to the business tax settlement.
To take off, the burbles need a logo. Got any ideas? Email the
Call.
— B.C.
